


Miles from Where You Are

by ivorybyrd



Series: WTNV Ficlets... [5]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Brain tumor, Carlos leaves night vale, Depressing, M/M, Medical Conditions, Sad, Seizures, oh god I'm SORRY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-01
Updated: 2013-12-01
Packaged: 2018-01-03 04:59:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1066046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivorybyrd/pseuds/ivorybyrd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was bound to happen anyway, and they went their separate ways, because both were pulled away into their own worlds. Cecil stayed behind in the netherworld like Night Vale, and Carlos escaped back into his own world. However things are never just done as easily as that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Miles from Where You Are

“I'm miles from where you are,  
I lay down on the cold ground  
I, I pray that something picks me up  
And sets me down in your warm arms”  
“Set the fire to the third Bar” 

 

It had been a year since Carlos had to leave the town of Night Vale, his two year relationship with Cecil ended rather quietly, Cecil could not leave, the town wouldn’t let him. And Cecil didn’t want to leave, for his own reasons. Carlos wanted to plead with him, but he knew Cecil was too strange for the outside world. 

Ultimately, the outside world seemed to bore Carlos now.

He felt like time moved too fast. The sky seemed boring and unchanging when he stared up at it at night. He was tired of the soft grass. The daily commute to and from his nicer, phenomenon free, lab. He’d lost a few friends in that town, but gained so many more. 

He was tested for three months, quarantined. Given psychological evaluations that he lied his way through. The remaining residue from the town gave him nightmares, but they were more welcoming than being awake. He’d spend hours after hours in bed, staring up at the ceiling, willing something to drop him in the hot, dry desert.

He would have visions, of the town calling him back. He’d imagine the sky opening up and several beams of black lights would turn buildings into cheese. Sometimes he’d reach over, finding a body laid curled up in his bed. The muted lavender skin smooth to his touch, as he traced over inches of the familiar arm Only to disappear after a few bats of eyelashes. 

He’d then turn over, and stare at the drawn blinds, watching the bit of light that moved along the walls and floor until the sun went down. 

He took the subway to southern New York City, and then the ferry across the river. It was winter, and despite the cold, he stood out looking over the water. The gray tones in the sky, in the air brought the ache in his chest. He missed the heat, the dry, heavy heat.

He didn’t have much of a choice back then, he had to leave the city of Night Vale. With every day, he missed it. Despite the backwards government that resided there, despite the occasional sentient cloud, despite all the bad that happened there in the middle of the desert. He felt really at home. 

He walked through the small town he came into after the ferry and cab ride. He wandered a lot, hoping to fall into a portal and get transported back home. 

A man bumped into him, and for a second it was Cecil, but with a blink of an eye the man was much bigger, gruffer looking. He sneered at Carlos. “Bum.” 

Carlos turned his head away, his coat was old, and the clothes he wore underneath were baggy. 

One thing that weighed heavily on Carlos.

His coming death. 

The worst about leaving Night Vale, was that he brought something with him. A brain tumor in his left hemisphere. He was forgetful, as it pressed against some parts of his brain. He’d had several seizures since leaving. He was decommissioned, he was given a medical discharge and was collecting his retirement from the military every month. He couldn’t work in his condition.

He was deep in the forest before he took notice to his surroundings. 

He panted in the cold air, pulling the coat further around his shoulders. He knew that going any farther, he’d have troubles getting back home. He gripped a tree and held his chest, coughing lightly. Fatigued, he sat down on the cold ground, closing his eyes and leaned his back against the tree. 

This was how normal people died, they got brain tumors, they got cancer. Normal deaths were car accidents, they grew old and their hearts gave out. They would be surrounded by people who loved them. 

Carlos had no one anymore. Most of his team was lost there, and the rest went their separate ways. 

His family was gone or too far to care. 

He wouldn’t be able to replace what he had. No man or woman would want someone who was only going to last a year, or less, with no money to their name. He set up his funds in Cecil’s favor, that upon his death everything went to the other man. 

But...

Who would bury him?

Who would attend his funeral?

Who would cry for him?

He grabbed his glasses and ripped them from his face. They disappeared in some random foliage that he used to know the name of. The back of his hand pressed to his forehead. He pulled his knees up and tried to curl up. He tried to push away the pain that crying caused him. It was painful to be sad. The one consequence of his illness. 

He wished and begged his head to stop hurting.

His hand dropped and he stared off. 

After countless moments he was back. Looking around and couldn’t even remember sitting down. The last fifteen minutes, including the path he took to get there, was now gone thanks to the petite mal seizure he slipped into. 

He wiped his eyes, unable to move from the spot just yet he laid down. Maybe if he waited for the sun to come back up, he could find his way home.

He imagined the treetops and blackening sky above him to be the void sky he’d grown to love back in Night Vale. 

His vision swirled and he tried to focus. 

“What do you think about?”

“Huh?” he whispered into the air. 

“You said you’ve been thinking, of what?” 

“I’ve missed this place...” He couldn’t turn his gaze from the sky

“Missed it, from whence did you leave?” 

Carlos blinked back tears. “I left,” 

“I’d never let you leave.” 

“You did, I thought you’d beg, threaten, bribe me to.” He chuckled, the steam from his breath coming out in puffs. 

There was no response. 

“Hallucinations, seizures, petite mals, loss of time...” he trailed off the list exactly as the doctor had. “Loss of memory.” 

But it was funny, he could remember every wonderful moment from Night Vale, but couldn’t remember his mother’s face. 

He couldn’t remember his first pet, or any romantic attachment before Cecil. He couldn’t remember the shoes he put on that morning, but he could remember the different moods Cecil had Every scar that formed some symbol on his skin. Every location of every dark pink freckle on his face and shoulders.

His body became light, almost suddenly. He dazed in and out, his mind began to float as his extremities became numb. His fingers tingled only slightly, his toes completely gone. It crept up into his torso and it felt like he was floating in the ocean. 

A pair of warm arms wrapped around him, tightly, securely. 

“You never left, you’ll always be here with me, my beautiful Carlos.” 

 

Two thousand, two hundred and fifty-nine miles away:

 

Cecil blinked, suddenly stopping mid sentence of his broadcast. A deep hole opened up in his stomach and his heart dropped. He stayed quiet, and closed his eyes. 

Dana, now Cecil’s PA was knocking on the booth window. Her face in concern as she scrawled a backwards message on the glass, asking him what’s wrong. 

“I-i am sorry listeners...” he said and took off the headphones. Getting up he wrapped his arms around himself and looked out the window for a moment. Searching, clawing his way through the miles. 

This couldn’t be happening. 

Dana slipped in and threw on a commercial and turned to watch her superior. 

Cecil just stared out the window. He sighed and went back to his seat. Once the sponsor’s message was over he clicked over. 

“Citizens of Night Vale, I have very distressing news...”

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize, but this was so vivid in my mind. I am sorry I am sorry I am sorry >_


End file.
